RESIDENTS FORUM

You can probably guess from the name and theme of this thread that my enthusiasm for this series is riding the wave of an all time high. Recently I have tried to embrace it and just have fun with it. So after having a discussion with USS Command about dissapointments/missed oppourtunites in this series I figured why not share mine and I would like to hear what other people's most dissapointing moments have been. It could be anything from a whole game, sections of a game, a movie, character, BOW, scrapped concept, hell whatever you feel was the biggest let down and you just cannot get over how they didn't take the oppourtunity that you expected.

I will give a few examples here just to get people's memories rolling. For example the major change in gameplay for Resident Evil 4 or how they completley dismissed the Umbrella plot within the opening cutscene. Perhaps the movies and how they are completley unrelated to the games. Operation Raccoon City and how everyone expected something like Outbreak. The complete lack of conviction to finding a new permenant antagonist by killing off Wesker, Simmons, Alex and most recently Arias. How about the recent lack of western supplemental materials? No guide books,art books or archieves 3. Not even an official release/translation for Biohazard The Stage.

Anyway take your pick and try to think of one and only one. Feel free to list several but try to focus on a main one and why you was dissapointed and what you expected/preffered to have seen. Most of the above are major ones for myself and while I would love to see any of those retconned if I could have it my way and only pick one it would be the following.

My major and biggest fault with the series has to be regarding Resident Evil Zero. Advertised as a game that delves into the story of what happened to the Bravo team there is not a single scenario imaginable that could get me more hyped to play a Resident Evil game. Being a massive fan of Remake and finiding the Arklay mansion to be one of the most iconic things about the series more so than most of the characters and BOW's. I was extremely dissapointed not to revisit the place. Back in March of 2002 the world experienced Remake in all its glory. Eight months later how epic would it have been to once again revisit the mansion only this time as different characters, different plot and different environments. They could have locked certain doors, extended areas out into the surrounding woods and even had surviving NPC's to interact with. We don't know what Forest could have seen or spoken to prior to his death.Let me just give you an example of how this was done right. For anyone who has played the Dead Space series you will remember the Ishimura. After leaving the ship in the first game and being done with the hell that we experienced there midway through the sequel we get a glimpse of the Ishimura docked at the space station. Before the game even suggested it I knew exactly what was coming and I cannot explain to you the excitment/nostalgia I expereinced before re-entering the Ishimura! If they could bottle that emotion and sell it in a store you would be a billionaire. It is one thing to revisit the Arklay mansion in Remake because you know exactly what to expect however you are playing the same game with the same scenario. You can try to recreate that nostalgia but it never comes across like how I experienced in Dead Space 2.

The game I would have loved to have seen and thought practically wrote itself would have been a similar opening cutscene to that of Zero however this time instead of a train they arrive at the mansion. You begin the game as Edward and you play until he meets his scripted death, then take over as Kenneth who also suffers a similar fate and so on until you finally make it down to Rebecca who survives the night with the game ending as Alpha make it to the mansion. Hell they could have still implemented Marcus and just had the training facility in close promixity to the Mansion. I just never understood why they did not include their story as it was the original story and what happened in the mansion that got me hooked on this series. I never really cared much for the science, the corporations and so on. To me it was about the mystery of what happened here and that is something that seems to have lost it's way ever since they departed Raccoon.

After the HD release of Zero I did find a new appriciation for the game however I will never forgive or forget that Zero is an above average game when it could have been something spectacular. Possibly even surpassing Remake.

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"I've had enough of your bullshit! Your just another one of Umbrella's leftovers"

Anyone who knows me, or knows of me, know the love I have for ORC. While I can, and still do, find reasons to love it, that doesn’t stop it from being just one big missed opportunity. I followed the games marketing religiously, every chapter of Inserted Evil just gave us more and more details on its story and it was great. The excitement and joy reading the story info from Inserted Evil is wonderful. Interviews with developers mention several new characters will be hunted down by Wolfpack, Leon was optional, A shoot out with surviving Officers in the RPD, the promise of exploring how Nemesis got transported to Raccoon City, The promise of exploring Rockfort Island and seeing new never before seen locations there. Plus, we were the “badguys” with all the training and equipment to handle Raccoon City. It was to be one hell of game! Then the game comes out, and it has none of that. Just a buggy campaign with interesting concepts and ideas all over the place. Then the Spec Ops DLC comes out and we have two buggy campaigns full of interesting ideas and concepts. Yeah, both are full of great details, but don’t amount to anything (unless you wanna consider Biohazard The Real 1, 2, and 3 story, yes there’s story, Canon). Just think if they could’ve came through on those promises, if Inserted Evil story and locations was reference, visited, or talked about, or if all those details ended up being important. This would’ve been a good game! If you write a book about RE’s missed opportunities, it’ll be on the cover.

As for disappointment Umbrella Corps. Need I say more?

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"I'll take my Survival Horror like I take my men" - George Trevor, September 3, 2017 at 6:10 PM

“Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object and if you know it but a little, you will be able to love it only a little of not at all.” - Leonardo da Vinci

"Interviews with developers mention several new characters will be hunted down by Wolfpack, Leon was optional, A shoot out with surviving Officers in the RPD, the promise of exploring how Nemesis got transported to Raccoon City, The promise of exploring Rockfort Island and seeing new never before seen locations there. Plus, we were the “badguys” with all the training and equipment to handle Raccoon City. It was to be one hell of game! "

All of that does sound amazing and even if it didnt fit into the canon it still would have been fun as a spin off. The inaccuarcy/contradictions of ORC were not really what bothered me. It was the lack of story (in game) which was limited to those damn mission introductions. I have read Inserted Evil and heard many things about this game from you and it is definatley a missed opportunity. Some amazing detail went into the background lore of this game it just never made it to the forefront and it hurt it....ALOT.

What's all this about shootout's with RPD officers, Nemesis transportation and Rockfort? First I've heard of this. Please elaborate. Like I said it might not have fit the canon but it would have been fun to see this stuff. Like the Spec Ops interaction with Carlos and Jill after the Nemesis clock tower battle. That was one of the better moments of the game and they needed more of that. More interaction with the series. We got a broken Birkin battle, a frustrating Nemesis fight with the lava and a pointless Nicholai boss battle. I dont think any of these would actually fit into the canon not a chance in hell. Smaller circumstances like the clock tower scene however are more believeable. It take's real subtlety to retcon a scene into the middle of the Raccoon City incident, never mind a whole game. Inserted Evil a few nit pickity errors aside fits, ORC's story though is just way off. Should have taken more time with the game and focused on getting the scenarios correct as well as implementing all the wonderful things you mention. However I get the sense that Capcom were in Slant Six's ear telling them just hurry up and get it out.

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"I've had enough of your bullshit! Your just another one of Umbrella's leftovers"

Naturally the biggest one is having Alexia for only one game, seeing as she's the best female in video games and movies ever. But,like EVERYONE is going to say that right?...so i wont mention it. Of course i can mention the 303 page japanese only CVX godly guide that i ended up paying a ton for a translation because they haven't released it in English.

Right no but i am going to go with 2017 as my biggest dissapointment. In a very short span of time i lost all faith i had with this series,and everything is connected. Naturally games and movies are a matter of personal taste and the following opinions are just my own. That being said let's review 2017 so far and see how it all went down the drain:

Not having Claire in remake. OK so capcom outsourced the voice acting and motion capture to a 3rd party company that can choose the actors. But it's not an indy company we are talking about, it's the best selling franchise of a fucking billion dollar company, so how about putting a clause in the contract that reads "must use ALYSON for the REMAKE". But they won't give a fuck, i mean they do a Japan dub so they think they can fuck English speaking fans. But i mean what makes them think like that?.....this connects us to

Vendetta: Weak plot, weak action scenes, almost no Suvival Horror with RE characters. Dumbest plot ever, i love the characters and the animation is great but come on lol it's such a formulatic, dull and dumb movie. But, most re fans are all over it, "8TH TIME WATCHING!" "AWESOME AND FUN!" lol okay i admit i'd watch a move about CV ten times but until that day come i can be unbiased and see things as they really are. Why are fans not rejecting this lazy piece of crap?...and this connects us to..yeah..the big one..

RE7. Some people are going to list RE6 as an all time low for the franchise but no f*** that. They TRIED in RE6. Survival horror, action, boss fights, epic lengh, sure the game failed on it's head but it can happen, you know. Meanwhile RE7..lazy story, lazy design, dull music, boss fights are meh(especially the last boss LOL), indy steam horror game level but fans admire it "BEST RE IN YEARS "RETURN TO SURVIVAL HORROR ROOTS" and other suff becuase they are so blinded by hatred for RE6-RE5 they accept this low budget mess as a good RE game. Just watching how many threads about "IS IT CHRIS" makes me laugh so hard, no one even talks about the game they paid 60$ for but about a cheap red herring trick by Capcom So Capcom sees this and thinks "Hey, no need for actual effort in 2017, these suckers will buy anything with the name RE attached to it".

So let's not have Alyson back, 99% of the people won't even care fuck the old time RE fans

So let's have a movie with a lame duck story that's NOTHING like RE at all

SO let's not translate the stage and heavenly island(thank god for pirates) keeping them Japan only, no one outside of Japan is a RE fan right?

I can't blame the fans because it's all a matter of taste after all, but Capcom is abusing the blind admiration of so many people(most of which i would say not even real RE fans) and it's disgusting to see.

Well first of all when are you going to share this guide with us Sarahly? I would love to see it. I would actually loved to have seen Alexia in more than one game. I thought she was a great villain who you actually felt had a vast greatness of power. She also came across as indestructible. Until the linear launcher showed up.

Again I agree with you 2017 was a rubbish year for Resident Evil, at least for me. I find myself only reading and thinking about the old school of the series just to avoid thinking about how much of a tragedy it has been. Vendetta I could tollerate even after Kobayashi's stupid interview. RE7 however I still cannot get rid of bad taste. I tried playing it only the other day to show my friend and after 20 minutes I just had to turn it off because it was MIND NUMBING!! I will probably struggle to get through Not A Hero as well.

Alyson Court is a huge deal to a large number of the Western audience. More people have been asking for her in Remake2 than anything else. Yet it if the first thing they announce that is not in the game. If the number one thing fans have asked for is not in the game. What are the odds then that fixed camera angles, item box's, ink ribbons and everything else people expect from Remake 2? Not good I would guess. Capcom do what they want when they want and they prove this time and time again. The only time they gave us what we wanted was the HD port's because they had nothing else on the horizion not even outside of Resident Evil.

It is like a breath of fresh air seeing people put RE7 in its place like I believe it deserves. Absolutley RE6 was a better more fun game. I applaud you for that end sentence. Let me sum up the modern RE fan on social media. So I posted about the timestamp contradictions in the DLC for RE7 on Resident Evil's official Facebook. People actually got mad at ME for pointing out a flaw in their timeline. They refused to accept what I was trying to explain to them or they just didn't understand simple English. One guy then put the final nail in the coffin and said 'I don't care about some stupid timeline error all I want to know is was that Chris?'. My point here is fans are ready and willing to dismiss any flaw's with the game wether it be length, bugs, timeline, lack of story, lack of relation to the series all in the name of SURVIVAL HORROR.

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"I've had enough of your bullshit! Your just another one of Umbrella's leftovers"

I think the biggest disappointments/missed opportunities were not using the original ideas they had for the games. Most notably:

Resident Evil 3.5 Fog/Castle Version

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

Resident Evil Revelations first trailer.

It is my firm belief that the original ideas for these three games seem to have been more cohesive or more interesting to the overall story of the series.

Resident Evil 3.5

When I first saw the original trailer for this....holy shit. Leon investigating a dark dingy house, the Progenitor Virus explained, the HCF returning from Code Veronica, attacking the place and spreading their own new virus, which infects Leon, not to mention that Leon's sidearm is the Desert Eagle that he received in Resident Evil 2, which is pretty intelligent considering what you're going up against if you're going to investigate this sort of stuff. I never understand why these characters kept returning to a BOW fight with a 9mm haha.

Also, in a recent interview that I saw on this site with Paul Mercier, according to him the virus might've actually taken Leon over and ultimately resulted in his death unless he was joking). Could you imagine how intense that would be? That wold put such a weight/gravitas on the series. Leon getting so close to the truth, so close to getting to the bottom of everything that could be instrumental in taking Umbrella down, right in the heart of Umbrella, in Spencer's Castle, only to be tragically defeated? But not before he can get the information to the Redfields/Private Anti-Umbrella Organization, which would ultimately lead to the endgame between them, Umbrella/Spencer and Wesker/Tricell. Instead we got RE4 which was fun, but it was also the beginning of the downward spiral that led to the action-fest we have today, save RE7. It was Shinji Mikami's last hurrah, the end of an era.

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

This pretty much speaks for itself in the concept art and the early trailers. The flashback occurs. Perhaps, Chris and Jill get to interact with Spencer somehow prior to his death at the hands of Wesker. Jill stabbing Wesker in the eye would be so badass before her capture/death, revealing a crack in his armor and leading to a weakness with the glass eye.

Chris should've been controlled by the player alone like Leon in the previous game. Barry should've been there as a partner character and/or as part of a team in aiding Chris. Damn right, Barry would have a part in taking down Wesker, considering the history that he has with Wesker and his Resident Evil 3 epilogue. He feels that he owes it to Chris and Jill and feels he must help take down Wesker, especially since Wesker captured or killed Jill In the flashback. Whether they're all BSAA or Private Anti-Umbrella Organization is up for debate. I personally believe that they should be the Private Anti-Umbrella Organization working in the shadows. Sheva should be an NPC with the local private militia in Africa as a contact to them. Again, this is the endgame between Spencer/Umbrella Wesker/Tricell and our Anti-Umbrella heroes. Spencer is taken out and Wesker is tracked by Chris and Barry to Africa.

The timeline should be condensed so that everything takes place earlier, like the Umbrella takedown in 2003.
I think Wesker should be the leader of Tricell and Excella his "partner."
Introduce a very advanced Tyrant that kills Excella and attacks the main characters. They defeat it.
I'm really against the idea of defeating Wesker in a volcano. I wouldn't exactly know how to portray this yet, but different location and all the characters work with each other to defeat him together. Perhaps the sacrifice of Chris to ultimately ensure Wesker never resurrects? Who knows. Series ends.

Resident Evil Revelations First Trailer Concept

The very first trailer for this game was soooooo good! Chris and Jill pointing guns at each other. Hunk is involved, mysterious guy sitting in chair. What's the big Revelation? Could it be Alex Wesker in the chair? Could it be Hunk? Could it be both?
What does Chris have that Jill would have to kill him to find out? And what does the mysterious prisoner mean when he implies that, "You're already...."?

This was much more interesting than what we got. There really was no big revelation in the final game! And if there was, it was anti-climactic because I don't remember anything interesting. Hunk turned into the appearance of all of Veltro. The biggest jab was that the mysterious guy in the chair turned out be someone's sick idea of a Chris dummy. He wasn't in the game at all!
Gone. I would possibly make this the Alex Wesker story and make it be an Anti-Umbrella Mission where it causes that extreme tension with Chris and Jill, leading to a resolution only to lead to the flashback of 4.5 Beta, placing this before the endgame with Albert Wesker.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts concerning disappointments/missed opportunities or where I thought the series went wrong. I wasn't very fond of the series turn when they decided to skip the fall of Umbrella and made it an opening title mention in RE4, and then the subsequent RE5 action fest we got after.

Feel free to discuss, debate, criticize. I'd like to hear what you think and how you feel about this.

First of all excellent post Sonny. So as I can see the scrapped versions of RE are the most disappointing moments for you and this is definitely in the top 5 for myself as well. There are so many more than just the ones you mentioned as well. Let me just add a few more to the mix. The scrapped scenario from RE2 where you revisit the mansion on your way out of the city. Resident Evil portable although we don’t know what this was I still would have loved another side game, especially on a portable and with the PSP. There was another one called City of the Dead and another one based on board a ship which was a direct sequel to the fourth survivor Hunk mini game which would be the first of three attempts they have made and scrapped to bring back Hunk. The first in the game I just mentioned, the second in Revelations original trailer and lastly the obvious references to him in Umbrella Corps. Let’s not forget another game which featured Jill Valentine and her tracking down the Umbrella lab in Raccoon City. Even ORC, Umbrella Corps and most recently RE7 had missing elements which they cut from the game due to time or budget.

There is also a lot more than is unknown about the 3.5 versions which I am not sure I can get into as of this time but let’s just say the direction they were going to head into I think would be a fantastic idea and exactly how to move the series forward. They have sort of recycled it in a way with the trilogy of Wesker’s (Alex, Jake and Albert) so it may be too late to implement it now. God only knows where they are headed now with RE7 because if they aren’t planning to blow us out of the water in their next instalment then it really is going nowhere. I am expecting big things from this Redfield character as well as Blue Umbrella and this mysterious organisation. If they are just more red herrings with another random bad guy with absolutely no connection to the series then I really can’t be arsed to play the next instalment. Here is too hoping Redfield is an imposter (Hunk) the mystery organisation is the HCF/Rival company and well I don’t really know what the hell to think about Blue Umbrella.

I guess it would be more realistic if they rolled into these situations with a minigun, grenade launcher and RPG. Armed to the teeth to blow up BOW’s but then that wouldn’t be much of a game so it’s kinda like movie magic moments. Well Leon was infected in RE4 and found the cure so they probably recycled that element from 3.5 as well as a few other things. Just a shame they didn’t carry over Spencer. Even if he was just a background character who you caught a glimpse of, perhaps working on a deal with Saddler to trade viruses or funding the cult. Would have just been a nice nod and come RE5 we wouldn’t have felt so robbed with him dying moments after his introduction to the series. At the time I really didn’t mind him dying in RE5 because I convinced myself he had a plan and an ace up his sleeve. Perhaps pulling a Wesker and needing to die to be reborn. Turns out I was half right when LIN came out it’s just his plan was unsuccessful when Alex backstabbed him. RE4 is fun and has fantastic gameplay but the story is just crap. If 3.5 had crap gameplay like Mikami seemed to have thought then why not RE4’s gameplay with 3.5’s story.

The thing about 4.5 was I think they overestimated the power of that console generation or just couldn’t implement what they aimed for. All this adapting to light and 15+ Majini sprinting all at once does sound very ambitious perhaps the current consoles now would have been better suited towards that type of game. I cannot really say too much about RE5 because I think it is a fantastic game. I think the story is damn near perfect. The gameplay of course could be better by making it more horror, perhaps slowing it down, adding more tense moments of build-up would have helped? But if any of that hurt the story then I would rather just keep the story. My only problem with RE5 is that Sheva had no business firing that rocket. I think it would have been a very poetic ending to the Umbrella/Spencer/Wesker/STARS storyline if you rescue Jill, Sheva and Josh head after Excella while Chris and Jill chase down Wesker. After Sheva and Josh complete their mission they reunite with Chris and Jill while all four battle Wesker. Wesker batters them all and is about to finish Jill when Chris tackles Wesker into whatever (Lava if we have to) ultimately sacrificing himself and returning the favour that Jill did for him in LIN. The story comes full circle. Let’s be honest what has Chris accomplished since Wesker that any other character couldn’t have taken his place in? RE6 could have had Jill instead of Chris with her training Piers to be the next leader of the BSAA. Nah just keep the same characters around and don’t enhance their arch’s in anyway what so ever.

I can agree with you about Revelations like I just said above if that was not Chris and it was Carlos would it have made any difference? I like the game and I enjoy the story but it is just a separate spin off with little bits of relevance thrown in here and there. The series has now become the James Bond of video games. New game, new story, new characters, new villain, new virus, new weapons all wrapped up and erased by the time the game ends.

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"I've had enough of your bullshit! Your just another one of Umbrella's leftovers"

Well, let me first say since I forgot to put in my original post that I completely agree with you that, while I did love that Resident Evil Zero played like a Resident Evil game, it was a major disappointment and I think that it threw the origin story of Bravo Team's involvement in the mansion incident off the rails. I always imagined Resident Evil Zero showing us exactly what transpired with Bravo Team as a whole and would have loved to have seen it play out the way you described, playing out each character's role until their death. Possibly discovering new things that they never had the chance to reveal.

Segueing into our posts, first off, excellent response and very interesting.

I should have said this earlier, but the most important part for me is story. There's nothing that I want out of Resident Evil more than a strong story and the portrayal of well-developed characters to that we journey with through those stories. It is also important to note that it also depends on which characters are involved and how their character progresses. Resident Evil is guilty of introducing a lot of characters into a single game and then not returning for the core story, which is fine....if it didn't keep happening every game. There are exceptions.

Carlos is my favorite example. It always felt like he belonged in RE3. His character worked for the story that was portrayed. Being part of the UBCS which was involved in the Raccoon City outbreak, thinking that he is there to rescue civilians without knowing other motives of Umbrella and then things turn to shit and he and Jill work together to escape. Barry rescues them and then Carlos parts ways with them. It makes sense. I can see him possibly coming back to join the Anti-Umbrella Organization, but it really didn't seem necessary.

Ashley Graham was a perfect example for a useless edition to the series....for what purpose? To glorify Leon as a badass hero who can transcend the Los Illuminados cult and rescue her and save the day? It was disconnected and new. Sure, there were some continuing plot points and the return of Ada and Wesker, but they felt more thrown in just to push the story forward than anything else and to show how badass Ada became action-wise as well. Leon investigating the Progenitor Virus and at Spencer's Castle with the HCF solidified the continuity of the story of the series more as well as discovering more about the origins of why everything has gotten to where it was during the present.

Resident Evil 5? I know that you think it's a fantastic game and to each their own, but I have to respectfully disagree. And let me just say that this is coming from a guy who was very excited about this game because three of my favorite characters were in it. Chris is my favorite as well as Jill, and then Wesker as my favorite main villain! But I was so let down.

1. To start, the transition to over the top action with RE4 is turbo-charged in this game. The co-op diminished the tension, but is fun for Mercenaries mode. Chris roided out....look, training really hard to go up against Wesker is one thing, but the cartoonishly big arms were ridiculous.

2. The game in its structure is a rehash of RE4. You start off in a village, things seem strange, the locals attack you and you get saved by an outside force. RE4 is Ada with the church bell, RE5 is Kirk with the helicopter and then later Josh with the BSAA.

You travel to more areas reminiscent of RE4, some almost resembling one another to a tee, like an underground area, a ruins, some industrial spots, the body of water, area with an El Gigante, a lab and then the final boss fight outside of that lab.

The Ganados and the Majini are relatively similar with minor changes, which I guess is fine, but with the return of chainsaw dude and tentacles and parasites everywhere it all looked the same. Even Irving looked very similar to Salazar.

Where was something like a Tyrant, or a Nemesis? Something reminiscent of a "weapon", rather than just tentacle monsters with the basic difference of different sizes?

3. Wesker in this......he was a super-charged Krauser, different story-wise and character-wise given the history, but just look at the end of the game, he ends up shirtless and uses his arm to mutate, much like Krauser's arm in RE4. Not to mention, why did Wesker go the cliche route and mutate?! That was the biggest cop out for his character. Should have never happened.

4. Sheva......I liked her, but she was replaceable and she never returned after this game. Also, Jill should have fired the rocket with Chris, or alternatively Chris and Jill defeating Wesker in some way.They could have had Sheva and Josh aiding as the African branch against Wesker, Excella and Tricell, and have them go after Excella (like you said) but I believe that a character more central to the story needed to be Chris's partner like Barry, especially with the Chris, Jill, and Barry dynamic. They were the original resistance to Wesker and to bio-terror organizations. It was such a missed opportunity that Barry was left out of this ending conflict.

5. I really did like that we learned more about Progenitor in this game and that we got to see Spencer, but I also agree with you that Spencer was cut down to soon. He was such a huge force operating behind the scenes with everything and the only portrayal we see of him is a senile old man with a God Complex, which then turns into Wesker's motivation. Did anybody else not see an Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader dynamic going on here between them? Then, Vader kills Palpatine and burns in lava with two rockets to the face hahaha.

Even after all of the disappointment, RE6 was still inifinitely more of a mess, so there's that.

To answer your question about Revelations, I still think it could have been a strong Chris and Jill story where tensions were high because of some reason. To get them to point guns at each other and be at such opposition would take a lot, so I would have loved to have seen how that unfolded.

Rather than introduce it in the plot in RE5, maybe the "Revelation" could have been the existence of another Wesker, Alex Wesker, and maybe Alex Wesker is also Hunk, disregarding Rev2. Hunk, who we know is loyal to Umbrella and usually shielded behind a mask except for some select imagery of his face, is still mysterious enough. Then, you could show Alex's relationship to Spencer and have the betrayal unfold. Maybe Chris and Jill somehow get the tip to track down Spencer and they interact wih Spencer, it is revealed that another Wesker exists and something goes down where Alex/Hunk has a trick up his sleeve and does something to Chris (maybe threatens him or infects him, to put him at odds with Jill. Which leads to the trailer of Chris talking about messing up. Alex/Hunk could be the one in the chair. It brings Hunk back in, makes in a bigger part of the central plot. Gives a really good reason as to why he has the reputation of Mr. Death and surviving impossible missions. He's Alex Wesker.

In regards to weapons, I'm not saying that they needed to show up with RPGs, mini-guns and grenade launchers, but Leon having the Desert Eagle has his sidearm as opposed to the 9mm handgun made sense from a progression standpoint. Have at a .357, a .44, or a .50 AE rather than a 9mm to start off. It makes sense storywise.

I feel that the scrapped versions of those games led to missed opportunities because it seemed like they were more in line with what was the story could have led to. They could have turned out bad, or they could have turned out good. My biggest disappointment is that we never got to find out fully, but there was enough to suggest that the story was going in a better direction. Even the scrapped versions that you mentioned would have been veryyyyy interesting.

It's also a testament to where Capcom was early on before things changed. They had a formula and there was a heart and soul to the series that has since become more business oriented after the original producers split up and left.

I do have to agree that the scrapped betas of the games are definitely opportunities missed.I think another missed opportunity they keep dropping the ball with is setting up a new recurring villain. Since Albert Wesker, we've not had another recurring villain in the series. The whole Bond villain of the week thing is past tired at this point.They have had opportunities to set up such with Alexia Ashford,Alex Wesker, Jack Krauser, to even the ones canonically alive such as Raymond Vestor and Jessica Sherawat. Just to name some.I know some are not too keen on Jessica but I like her smarter than she looks kind of persona in Revelations. She made it fun. I would love to see her be an antagonist for Jill especially as I would of like to have seen Krauser be a personal antagonist to Leon post 4 but we know that's not definitely happening given how 4 went.

Yeah, once again, characters made for one game, never to be heard from again. The series would benefit to use less characters and to better develop them, but it doesn't seem to be an artistic goal so much as a business one, much to my dismay.

I was gonna add the other day that I thought that Claire should of been in 6 as messy as it was instead of Chris. It really would of been a complete RE2 reunion with Leon,Ada,and Sherry. It also would of been cool to see Claire interacting with Sherry onscreen. I felt REv2 was just Capcom's way of throwing in Claire to make up for 6, in which that game she had better connections with the other characters.I just felt with Chris completing a big arc in 5, he could of sat out 6 or maybe he and Claire could of teamed up in 6 to keep the co-op in that action fest (I'm not a huge co-op fan) . I was fine with Jill not being in 6 but not getting a single mention in the files was unbelivable. Rev 2 gave us an update on her but that game was taking place before 6 so we still don't know what she has been up to all this time besides rehab and lab tests.

Honestly, considering how many characters were in that game, if you had just put Claire with Leon and Jill with Chris, it would have been the ultimate reunion game. I would have been happier at least playing the convoluted mess with all of the main characters from Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 together than with another couple of new non-recurring characters again.

I know a lot of people don't agree with my opinion while plenty does and most are just tired of hearing it, but for me the biggest disappointment was RE4. Everything I loved about the series was suddenly gone, even Leon wasn't a loveable character anymore, just a "badass" with no expressions. The atmosphere was depressing, everything was brown and cloudy. The ennemies, gosh, what happened to the zombies, the core of the game became an annoying virus that turn people mad and ugly. The controls, camera, gameplay and story drifted to somethng so different that I couldn't even enjoy the game. Don't get me wrong it's a good game and I know it, but it I don't see it as a Resident Evil. It frustrated me so much to see that THAT was what became of the franchise I never replayed it again. They used the story and characters of a great survival horror to make an action game instead of just creating one.
I do play the recent games, but I don't feel excited when hearing about a new resident evil anymore when I used to be so hyped about it.... It's sad.
Yea yeah yeah I know I 'm that kind of annoying "the old ones are the real resident evil!" fan, hahaha. My friends all say: games changes to adapt to new players, get over it.
But it's my opinion and biggest disppointment in RE

--

Rebecca Chambers, first person to know how to drop an item and give it to her partner.~~~

I agree with everything you said, Ann-C_03. Especially with 4 and 5, the atmosphere became monotonous and the characters became action stereotypes. The older games had a color and life to them, atmosphere and character-wise.

I think the biggest disappointments/missed opportunities were not using the original ideas they had for the games.

Most notably:

Resident Evil 3.5 Fog/Castle Version

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

Resident Evil Revelations first trailer.

It is my firm belief that the original ideas for these three games seem to have been more cohesive or more interesting to the overall story of the series.

Resident Evil 3.5

When I first saw the original trailer for this....holy shit. Leon investigating a dark dingy house, the Progenitor Virus explained, the HCF returning from Code Veronica, attacking the place and spreading their own new virus, which infects Leon, not to mention that Leon's sidearm is the Desert Eagle that he received in Resident Evil 2, which is pretty intelligent considering what you're going up against if you're going to investigate this sort of stuff. I never understand why these characters kept returning to a BOW fight with a 9mm haha.

Also, in a recent interview that I saw on this site with Paul Mercier, according to him the virus might've actually taken Leon over and ultimately resulted in his death unless he was joking). Could you imagine how intense that would be? That wold put such a weight/gravitas on the series. Leon getting so close to the truth, so close to getting to the bottom of everything that could be instrumental in taking Umbrella down, right in the heart of Umbrella, in Spencer's Castle, only to be tragically defeated? But not before he can get the information to the Redfields/Private Anti-Umbrella Organization, which would ultimately lead to the endgame between them, Umbrella/Spencer and Wesker/Tricell.

Instead we got RE4 which was fun, but it was also the beginning of the downward spiral that led to the action-fest we have today, save RE7. It was Shinji Mikami's last hurrah, the end of an era.

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

This pretty much speaks for itself in the concept art and the early trailers.

The flashback occurs. Perhaps, Chris and Jill get to interact with Spencer somehow prior to his death at the hands of Wesker. Jill stabbing Wesker in the eye would be so badass before her capture/death, revealing a crack in his armor and leading to a weakness with the glass eye.

Chris should've been controlled by the player alone like Leon in the previous game. Barry should've been there as a partner character and/or as part of a team in aiding Chris. Damn right, Barry would have a part in taking down Wesker, considering the history that he has with Wesker and his Resident Evil 3 epilogue. He feels that he owes it to Chris and Jill and feels he must help take down Wesker, especially since Wesker captured or killed Jill In the flashback. Whether they're all BSAA or Private Anti-Umbrella Organization is up for debate. I personally believe that they should be the Private Anti-Umbrella Organization working in the shadows. Sheva should be an NPC with the local private militia in Africa as a contact to them. Again, this is the endgame between Spencer/Umbrella Wesker/Tricell and our Anti-Umbrella heroes. Spencer is taken out and Wesker is tracked by Chris and Barry to Africa.

The timeline should be condensed so that everything takes place earlier, like the Umbrella takedown in 2003.
I think Wesker should be the leader of Tricell and Excella his "partner."
Introduce a very advanced Tyrant that kills Excella and attacks the main characters. They defeat it.
I'm really against the idea of defeating Wesker in a volcano. I wouldn't exactly know how to portray this yet, but different location and all the characters work with each other to defeat him together. Perhaps the sacrifice of Chris to ultimately ensure Wesker never resurrects? Who knows. Series ends.

Resident Evil Revelations First Trailer Concept

The very first trailer for this game was soooooo good! Chris and Jill pointing guns at each other. Hunk is involved, mysterious guy sitting in chair.

What's the big Revelation? Could it be Alex Wesker in the chair? Could it be Hunk? Could it be both?
What does Chris have that Jill would have to kill him to find out? And what does the mysterious prisoner mean when he implies that, "You're already...."?

This was much more interesting than what we got. There really was no big revelation in the final game! And if there was, it was anti-climactic because I don't remember anything interesting. Hunk turned into the appearance of all of Veltro. The biggest jab was that the mysterious guy in the chair turned out be someone's sick idea of a Chris dummy. He wasn't in the game at all!
Gone.

I would possibly make this the Alex Wesker story and make it be an Anti-Umbrella Mission where it causes that extreme tension with Chris and Jill, leading to a resolution only to lead to the flashback of 4.5 Beta, placing this before the endgame with Albert Wesker.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts concerning disappointments/missed opportunities or where I thought the series went wrong. I wasn't very fond of the series turn when they decided to skip the fall of Umbrella and made it an opening title mention in RE4, and then the subsequent RE5 action fest we got after.

Feel free to discuss, debate, criticize. I'd like to hear what you think and how you feel about this.

I just about agree whole heartedly with every word of Sonny Bauer's post. I can remember like t was yesterday, so deep is the emotional wound, the day I saw the first trailer for the revised version of Resident Evil 4 and all the beautiful REmake style gameplay had been binned for a Metal Gear Solid style; I was devestated! I used to adoringly watch 'Hookman' until I one day told myself it was doing nobody any good desperately lamenting what could have been! I just want to say one more time, that experimental game-play build by Kawamura san is so perfect in the wonderful way it retains REmake's feel & style, whilst producing something that also looks & feels totally unique & fresh.

But nothing, not even the criminal abandonment of Kawamura's Resident Evil 4 concepts comes close to the disapointment and enormous horrendous significance to the series' direction going forward, caused by Resident Evil 5. I cannot and never will despise a video game like Resident Evil 5. That it has Resident Evil's best narrative, and best collection of game files, makes the disgust I have for its insultingly mindless gameplay, even greater. Yeah I know it may sound cliched to refer to Resident Call Of Duty Evil, but there's something in the repeatativeness of that comparison - it's so fucking on the money: Wave after wave of mindless one-dimentional combat, every repeatative episode as boring as the next, the moronic mechanic of enemies dropping ammo destroying any sense of survival horor, and the pointless omission of puzzles & non-linear exploration - A PILLAR of Resident Evil signature survival horror gameplay is just done away with and replaced with nothing more than Battlefield by daytime. An absolute black mark in video game history and the near death of survival horror by the masses of brain dead easily pleased aggression junkies who bought this game and changed the direction of Resident Evil very, very much for the poorer.

I think the biggest disappointments/missed opportunities were not using the original ideas they had for the games.

Most notably:

Resident Evil 3.5 Fog/Castle Version

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

Resident Evil Revelations first trailer.

It is my firm belief that the original ideas for these three games seem to have been more cohesive or more interesting to the overall story of the series.

Resident Evil 3.5

When I first saw the original trailer for this....holy shit. Leon investigating a dark dingy house, the Progenitor Virus explained, the HCF returning from Code Veronica, attacking the place and spreading their own new virus, which infects Leon, not to mention that Leon's sidearm is the Desert Eagle that he received in Resident Evil 2, which is pretty intelligent considering what you're going up against if you're going to investigate this sort of stuff. I never understand why these characters kept returning to a BOW fight with a 9mm haha.

Also, in a recent interview that I saw on this site with Paul Mercier, according to him the virus might've actually taken Leon over and ultimately resulted in his death unless he was joking). Could you imagine how intense that would be? That wold put such a weight/gravitas on the series. Leon getting so close to the truth, so close to getting to the bottom of everything that could be instrumental in taking Umbrella down, right in the heart of Umbrella, in Spencer's Castle, only to be tragically defeated? But not before he can get the information to the Redfields/Private Anti-Umbrella Organization, which would ultimately lead to the endgame between them, Umbrella/Spencer and Wesker/Tricell.

Instead we got RE4 which was fun, but it was also the beginning of the downward spiral that led to the action-fest we have today, save RE7. It was Shinji Mikami's last hurrah, the end of an era.

Resident Evil 4.5 Beta

This pretty much speaks for itself in the concept art and the early trailers.

The flashback occurs. Perhaps, Chris and Jill get to interact with Spencer somehow prior to his death at the hands of Wesker. Jill stabbing Wesker in the eye would be so badass before her capture/death, revealing a crack in his armor and leading to a weakness with the glass eye.

Chris should've been controlled by the player alone like Leon in the previous game. Barry should've been there as a partner character and/or as part of a team in aiding Chris. Damn right, Barry would have a part in taking down Wesker, considering the history that he has with Wesker and his Resident Evil 3 epilogue. He feels that he owes it to Chris and Jill and feels he must help take down Wesker, especially since Wesker captured or killed Jill In the flashback. Whether they're all BSAA or Private Anti-Umbrella Organization is up for debate. I personally believe that they should be the Private Anti-Umbrella Organization working in the shadows. Sheva should be an NPC with the local private militia in Africa as a contact to them. Again, this is the endgame between Spencer/Umbrella Wesker/Tricell and our Anti-Umbrella heroes. Spencer is taken out and Wesker is tracked by Chris and Barry to Africa.

The timeline should be condensed so that everything takes place earlier, like the Umbrella takedown in 2003.
I think Wesker should be the leader of Tricell and Excella his "partner."
Introduce a very advanced Tyrant that kills Excella and attacks the main characters. They defeat it.
I'm really against the idea of defeating Wesker in a volcano. I wouldn't exactly know how to portray this yet, but different location and all the characters work with each other to defeat him together. Perhaps the sacrifice of Chris to ultimately ensure Wesker never resurrects? Who knows. Series ends.

Resident Evil Revelations First Trailer Concept

The very first trailer for this game was soooooo good! Chris and Jill pointing guns at each other. Hunk is involved, mysterious guy sitting in chair.

What's the big Revelation? Could it be Alex Wesker in the chair? Could it be Hunk? Could it be both?
What does Chris have that Jill would have to kill him to find out? And what does the mysterious prisoner mean when he implies that, "You're already...."?

This was much more interesting than what we got. There really was no big revelation in the final game! And if there was, it was anti-climactic because I don't remember anything interesting. Hunk turned into the appearance of all of Veltro. The biggest jab was that the mysterious guy in the chair turned out be someone's sick idea of a Chris dummy. He wasn't in the game at all!
Gone.

I would possibly make this the Alex Wesker story and make it be an Anti-Umbrella Mission where it causes that extreme tension with Chris and Jill, leading to a resolution only to lead to the flashback of 4.5 Beta, placing this before the endgame with Albert Wesker.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts concerning disappointments/missed opportunities or where I thought the series went wrong. I wasn't very fond of the series turn when they decided to skip the fall of Umbrella and made it an opening title mention in RE4, and then the subsequent RE5 action fest we got after.

Feel free to discuss, debate, criticize. I'd like to hear what you think and how you feel about this.

I just about agree whole heartedly with every word of Sonny Bauer's post. I can remember like t was yesterday, so deep is the emotional wound, the day I saw the first trailer for the revised version of Resident Evil 4 and all the beautiful REmake style gameplay had been binned for a Metal Gear Solid style; I was devestated! I used to adoringly watch 'Hookman' until I one day told myself it was doing nobody any good desperately lamenting what could have been! I just want to say one more time, that experimental game-play build by Kawamura san is so perfect in the wonderful way it retains REmake's feel & style, whilst producing something that also looks & feels totally unique & fresh.

But nothing, not even the criminal abandonment of Kawamura's Resident Evil 4 concepts comes close to the disapointment and enormous horrendous significance to the series' direction going forward, caused by Resident Evil 5. I cannot and never will despise a video game like Resident Evil 5. That it has Resident Evil's best narrative, and best collection of game files, makes the disgust I have for its insultingly mindless gameplay, even greater. Yeah I know it may sound cliched to refer to Resident Call Of Duty Evil, but there's something in the repeatativeness of that comparison - it's so fucking on the money: Wave after wave of mindless one-dimentional combat, every repeatative episode as boring as the next, the moronic mechanic of enemies dropping ammo destroying any sense of survival horor, and the pointless omission of puzzles & non-linear exploration - A PILLAR of Resident Evil signature survival horror gameplay is just done away with and replaced with nothing more than Battlefield by daytime. An absolute black mark in video game history and the near death of survival horror by the masses of brain dead easily pleased aggression junkies who bought this game and changed the direction of Resident Evil very, very much for the poorer.

Brain dead aggression junkies?.What about them brain dead survival horror cheap scares junkies who think RE7 is better than RE5(or that 7 is a good game) despite the fact 5 got way better story, better music, better boss fights, better lore(all RE staples) and better gameplay?. When 6 months pass and the only thing people care about is "is it Chris?!" you know something is fucked up

Pretty much everything that is holding the series back right there. No establishment no progress. If they did the opposite of everything you just listed the series would be looking pretty good right about now. A new likeable protagonist, a new antagonist that has been very well accepted and consistency with it's characters. I don't understand how Capcom cannot see their wrong doings? It seems like very amateur mistakes.

--

"I've had enough of your bullshit! Your just another one of Umbrella's leftovers"